Scrupulosity and hoarding
Open accessAbstract
Objective Recent evidence suggests that avoiding waste may be a prominent motive to save in hoarding disorder. Such beliefs are reminiscent of scrupulosity obsessions in OCD. This paper reports on three studies examining scrupulosity-like beliefs in hoarding and the development and validation of a measure of material scrupulosity.Methods Study one examined the reliability and validity of a measure of material scrupulosity (MOMS) and its relationship to hoarding in a college student sample, as well as the relationship between hoarding and OCD-base scrupulosity. Study 2 examined the psychometric properties of the MOMS in a replication of study 1 with a sample of people with hoarding problems. Study 3 examined the reliability and validity of the MOMS in a large nonclinical/community sample.Results Findings across the studies provided evidence for the reliability and validity of the MOMS. It was highly correlated with hoarding symptoms, especially difficulty discarding, and hoarding related beliefs, especially responsibility beliefs. It accounted for significant variance in hoarding symptoms independent of other correlates, including other hoarding beliefs. OCD-based scrupulosity was correlated with hoarding in sample 1, but not in the hoarding sample in study 2.Conclusions Material Scrupulosity refers to an exaggerated sense of duty or moral/ethical responsibility for the care and disposition of possessions to prevent their being harmed or wasted. It appears to be distinct from other hoarding-related beliefs and a significant predictor of hoarding symptoms. The MOMS appears to possess good reliability and validity in both clinical and nonclinical samples.
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Due to their strong, albeit insecure, emotional attachment to objects and an excessive fear of waste, individuals with hoarding disorder find discarding or donating their possessions to be an extremely challenging task.
“Due to their strong, albeit insecure, emotional attachment to objects (Yap andGrisham, 2019, 2020) and an excessive fear of waste (Frost et al., 2018), individuals with HD find discarding or donating their possessions to be an extremely challenging task.”
From A naturalistic study of emotion regulation-enhanced cognitive-behavioral group therapy for hoarding disorder in a community setting (2022) · cites this paper as Frost et al., 2018
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Frost, R. O., Gabrielson, I., Deady, S., Dernbach, K. B., Guevara, G., Peebles-Dorin, M., Yap, K., & Grisham, J. R.
- Affiliations
- Smith College (US)
- Australian Catholic University (AU)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Frost, Randy O.
- Venue
- Comprehensive Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-10
- Volume
- 86
- Pages
- 19-24
- ISSN
- 0010-440X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2884540293
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 3.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Comprehensive Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UNSWorks (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Research Bank (Australian Catholic University) (submittedVersion)
- Smith ScholarWorks (Smith College) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- hoarding disorder, scrupulosity, obsessive-compulsive disorder, responsibility beliefs, measurement development, psychometric validation, gender differences
- MeSH terms
- Hoarding Disorder, Adolescent, Adult, Female, Guilt, Humans, Male, Motivation, Obsessive Behavior, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Surveys and Questionnaires, Students, Reproducibility of Results, Young Adult, Hoarding
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